MovieChat Forums > The Book of Life (1999) Discussion > Hartley's Best?

Hartley's Best?

posted 20 years ago by astaroth13
9 replies | jump to latest

I take it if anyone has gotten this far they're either a lover of "The Book of Life" or simply someone who has recently come across this unheard of gem. Truth be told I have nothing new or interesting to say about this film but seeing as no one has yet commented I figured I'd start the ball rolling on this achievement of screen-writing and acting.
Notice I did not say "Film-making" Hartley uses no new techniques and could hardly hold his own next to the Bruckheimers and Michael Bays of the world when it comes to onscreen clutter.
Hartley is an average director but an excellent producer and most likely the BEST writer working in movies today.
I heard somewhere a reviewer call this "Hartley's Best" and where I do not agree I could easily understand their point of view. (I'm partial to Trust but it could be my infactuation with Adrienne Shelly's lips though PJ Harvey was quite delectable in this particular pelicular.
So did anyone out there find this to be Hartley's best work yet?
It's my third favorite, great great GREAT Film. But I have to go with first Trust and then Henry Fool.
Comments?

[–] vandergraaf 20 years ago

No sorry, I just can't agree. In fact, I would say this is my least favorite Hartley feature. Not that I totally dislike it, I just don't put it anywhere near his very best.
One major problem I have is that for this one, he succumbed to this God awful ( !!!!! ) trend of crappy, grainy digital film. Whereas his films generally have a crystal clear sharp look where the photography, art direction is almost unbelievably vivid. One of the best examples of this was the spare, beautiful look of his last one, "No Such Thing". So I cringed loudly when I recently heard that his newest, "The Girl From Monday" will be digital. Why Hal, why???? This digital trend makes me want to vomit! Please let it die!

You mentioned you felt Hal was an average director. Really can't agree here, as I think that's one of his strengths. His sense of composition and direction of scenes/actors/subltle nuances is brilliance unmatched. His dialog is always good, but something about this seemed forced, hurried and just not up to his usual standards.

I'll eventually try "Book Of Life" again, but it doesn't come close to "Henry Fool", "Amateur", "Simple Men", etc...

[–] wildstrawbe 19 years ago

.you know what? It might just be his best. I think he's getting better and better. I thought this one and the last one with Sarah Polley were almost perfect. I love his older movies but like most people, I guess, Hal is maturing and making even better movies.

[–] ilssaridor 19 years ago

I don't think this is his best. I haven't seen everything he's done, but I've seen four of his movies.

I think Flirt is by far his best!

[–] lrashid 19 years ago

to be honest, i haven't seen all of hal hartley's movies but i really..>REALLY enjoyed "the book of life". i love yo la tengo and pj harvey...hehe

i thought the conversations between satan and jesus were damn clever.

[–] trevorlouw 18 years ago

I am absolutely surprised to find so many people saying that they enjoyed this film. Somehow I have entered into a dark recess of IMDB where people with absolutely no sense for aestethics wander. And the one's who say the dialogue was clever? it was the most contrived, and obvious dialogue I have seen in a long time. I am in my second year in film school and this film is worse than some of our productions. There is absolutely no shot design, horrible acting; the film is an essay that has nothing new to say. absurd.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] fanaticita 9 years ago

I've seen this film three or four times and I absolutely love it. The dialogues between "satan" and "JC" are hilarious. The actors were tops. I can't wait to see it again.

[–] slimone (7996) 6 years ago

I loved this film except for one thing. . . . .the cinematography was weird, the way the camera made it seem like everything was floating around most of the time, especially the distance scenes. Otherwise I loved the acting, directing, etc.

I couldn't decide if the film was a fantasy, a comedy, or a drama, or a mix of all three. I found myself laughing especially with the scenes between "jesus" and "satan". They were both so funny.

All together a great little film even if it was only 60 minutes long!

[–] BrandNewPoster (6723) 7 months ago

I've only seen 3 of his films so far, but I think this one is the best out of the ones I have seen.